Avro York of Skyways Airline Ltd by Malcolm Root FGRA

The Avro York should technically should never existed due to the agreement between the British and American Governments that the USA would supply all transport aircraft during WWII. Roy Chadwick, Avro’s chief designer, was not one to be deterred and proceded to design a fuselage to use the wings, tail-planes and other assemblies from his excellent Lancaster. With the first prototype flying on 5 July 1942, the aircraft became an immediate success as a VIP transport but it would not be until after WWII that the aircraft would enter RAF service when in December, 511 squadron received its aircraft. As well as military orders, the aircraft proved very popular with private airlines and freight carriers, these including BOAC, FAMA of Argentina and two for Skyways. In total 257 York were built and they remained in service with civil operators into the 1960s

Malcolm Root’s Aviation Art birthday card shows one of the Skyways aircraft coming in to land